Should the Parents of the Teens who Bullied Rebecca Sedwick be Held Accountable?

The story of 12-year-old Rebecca Sedwick made news when she committed suicide by jumping from a tower at an abandoned cement plant.

Two girls, 12 and 14-years old allegedly encouraged people to fight Sedwick, and sent her messages encouraging her to kill herself. After she committed suicide, one of the girls even went on her Facebook page to comment. “Yes IK I bullied REBECCA nd she killed her self but IDGAF.”

The girls were arrested and charged with aggravated stalking of a minor. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd reported that he would love to arrest the parents as well. “I want to make sure that we do everything we can to send a loud message so parents have to pay attention,” Judd said. “At this point in the investigation, we don’t have a criminal case against any parents. We wish we did.”

“Unless there’s proof that the parents actively encouraged the bullying, there may be bad parenting, there may be moral responsibility, but there won’t be a crime,’’ NBC legal analyst Kendall Coffey told TODAY Thursday.

The family of the 14-year-old girl who was charged with a felony after her alarming Facebook post said that she is not a bully. While you may want to stand up for your children, how can someone who posted a comment as mean-spirited as that not be a bully?

“On Saturday morning, the 14-year-old did something that was despicable on top of what she already did that was terrible,’’ Judd told Matt Lauer on TODAY. “That was a post she put on Facebook, and that post said, ‘I know Rebecca is dead, and I don’t care.’ The words were much more graphic than that, or the letters were. So we looked at that and said, ‘She doesn’t get this at all.”

The 12-year-old girl and her parents have stepped up and accepted responsibility for what she has done, but declined to comment.

The parents of the 14-year-old girl issued a statement through DeMichael.

“My client and her family are deeply saddened by Rebecca’s death and send their condolences to Rebecca’s family. My client’s parents, Jose and Vivian, are stunned at the events that have transpired. They feel that their daughter is a loving, caring, and supportive young girl with many friends. As parents, they encouraged open communication with their daughter about daily occurrences and regularly monitored her social activities on her cell phone and Facebook account.

“Since they frequently monitored her and never observed these alleged messages, they did not see a problem to confront. Furthermore, they were unaware of misconduct at school regarding their daughter. If any of these issues had been brought to their attention they would have spoken to their daughter and remedied them to prevent situations like the one at hand. The alleged behavior is out of character for their daughter and they are attempting to deal with this as best as they can. As this case develops, they anticipate that the truth will come to light and their daughter’s name will be cleared.”